2025 Symposium Agenda

Registration

The Symposium is free to attend but registration is required. Registration closes May 31, 2025.

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About the Symposium

Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences is hosting the second annual Technologies for Agriculture and Living Systems Symposium at the University Park campus on June 12-13, 2025. The theme of this year's symposium is "Closing the Innovation Gap: Cross-Sector Insights and Collaboration in Technologies for Ag & Living Systems," with an aim to bring partners across academia, government, industry, and other stakeholders together to help us refine our understanding of opportunities and challenges along the technology pipeline from discovery to delivery. Over two days, we will explore the current state of this pipeline from various perspectives.

Day 1: Engage with panelists working at different points of the pipeline to identify big picture challenges and opportunities. We'll frame discussions using our governor’s economic development pillars—robotics, manufacturing, energy, and life sciences—and their intersections with agriculture.

Day 2: Dive deeper into the pipeline with panelists sharing their experiences at specific stages, followed by intensive facilitated discussions to map contributions from discovery to delivery.

Day 1 | June 12, 2025

Details on the sessions (session themes, presentation titles, and room locations) will be updated as the sessions are finalized with contributing participants.

Registration, Breakfast, Networking

8:00 | Animal Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences Building (AVBS) Southeast Lobby

Welcome

8:30 | 102 AVBS
Troy Ott
Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Paul Heinemann
Director of TALiS
Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Session: Cross-sector partnerships in building a culture of technology changes and adoption

9:00 - 10:00 | 102 AVBS
Speakers
Abby Smith
CEO & President, Team Pennsylvania

Christina Grozinger
Director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Penn State 
Publius Vergilius Maro Professor, Entomology, College of Agricultural Sciences

Dan Azzara
Director, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State
Alan R. Warehime Faculty Chair in Agribusiness

Moderator
Andy Bater
Farmer
Director on the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau State Board

Networking Break

10:00 - 10:30

Session: Perspectives on human interactions with technology

10:30 - 11:30 | 102 AVBS
Speakers
Florence Becot

Nationwide Insurance Early Career Professor in Agricultural Safety and Health,
Lead of the Penn State Agricultural Safety and Health Program, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Jessica Menold
Director of the Center for Immersive Experiences, Institute of Computational and Data Sciences, Teaching and Learning with Technology, and University Libraries
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Penn State

Rick Weires
Product Safety Manager, Balanced Engineering, LLC

Christine Kirchhoff
Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Penn State
Associate Director of Law, Policy, and Engineering Initiative

Moderator
Alyssa Collins
Director, Southeast Agricultural Research & Extension Center, Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station
Associate Research Professor, Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Keynote Speaker

11:30 - 12:00 | 102 AVBS
Michael Roth
Director of Conservation and Innovation, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture

Lunch

12:00 | AVBS Lobby and 106 AVBS

Cultivate the Future: Aligning Agricultural Innovation with Robotics, Manufacturing, Energy, and Life Sciences

This afternoon series of four panels will bring together experts from across the agricultural innovation pipeline to explore major challenges and opportunities through the lens of Governor Shapiro’s economic development pillars—robotics, manufacturing, energy, and life sciences—highlighting how these intersecting sectors are shaping the future of agriculture and living systems in Pennsylvania.

Panel: Ag and Life Sciences

1:00 - 1:50 | 102 AVBS
Panelists
Thomas Slewinski
Crop Efficiency and Disease Discovery Lead, Bayer Corporation

Steve Levitsky
Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Sustainability, Phospholutions

Ken Narva
Head of Insecticides, GreenLight Biosciences, Inc.

Nick Spring
Entrepreneur in Residence, Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center

Moderator
Sara Hermann
Assistant Professor of Arthropod Ecology and Trophic Interactions, Entomology, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Panel: Ag and Energy

2:00 - 2:50 | 102 AVBS
Panelists
Scott Welsh
Managing Partner, Fieldstone Innovations

Kevin Chase
Co-founder and Chief Development Officer, Vanguard Renewables

Kathryn Zerfuss
Commissioner, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission

Moderator
Dan Ciolkosz
Associate Research Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Panel: Ag and Manufacturing

3:00 - 3:50 | 102 AVBS
Panelists
James Glueck
Executive Director, Plant Based Products Council

Jennifer Gilburg
Deputy Secretary of Technology and Entrepreneurship
Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development 

Steve Chmely
Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Moderator
Lisa Riggs
Senior Managing Director, Economic Growth Strategy & Partnerships, Team Pennsylvania

Panel: Ag and Robotics

4:00 - 4:50 | 102 AVBS
Panelists
Manoj Karkee
Professor of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University

Kevin Dowling
Managing Director, The Robotics Factory

Erik Quanbeck
High-Value Crops Equipment Sales Manager, LandPro Equipment, LLC

Moderator
Long He
Associate Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Day 1 Closing Remarks

4:50 | 102 AVBS
Blair Siegfried
Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State
Director of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station

Day 2 | June 13, 2025

Registration, Breakfast, Networking

8:00 | AVBS Southeast Lobby

Early-Stage Research: Motivations toward Innovation and Industry Alignment

8:30 | 102 AVBS
Speakers
Yang Tao
Professor, Bioengineering, University of Maryland

Jeff Catchmark
Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

George Kantor
Research Professor, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

Bin Yan
Associate Vice President for Research, Office of the Senior Vice President of Research, Penn State
Director, Office of Technology Transfer

Moderator
Maria Spencer
John and Patty Warehime Entrepreneur in Residence, Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Assistant Clinical Professor, Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Research Translation: What Does Success Look Like?

9:45 | 102 AVBS
Speakers
Kyle Gheres
Technology Licensing Officer, Office of Technology Transfer, Penn State

Dan Leri
Director, Innovation Park, Penn State

Sven Bilén
Professor, Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Penn State
Founding Member, Lead, SYSTEMS Systems Engineering, X-Hab 3D

Kelly Wylem
Executive Director, Pennsylvania's Innovation Partnership, Ben Franklin Technology Partners

Moderator
Dan Azzara
Director, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State
Alan R. Warehime Faculty Chair in Agribusiness

Commercialization: Scaling Up Research and Marketing

11:00 | 102 AVBS
Speakers
Todd Erdley
Central Region Director & Portfolio Manager, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central & Northern PA

Don McCandless
CEO, ConidioTec, LLC

Steven Carpenter
Director of Research Startups, Office of Entrepreneurship and Commercialization, Penn State

Dustin Betz
Director of Venture Operations, White Rose Ventures

Moderator
Mark Gagnon
Harbaugh Entrepreneur and Innovation Faculty Scholar, Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Lunch

12:00 | AVBS Lobby and 106 AVBS

Concurrent Breakout Sessions: Mapping the Technology Pipeline

1:00 | Locations for each session listed below

Biotechnology | 106 AVBS

Facilitator
Gretta Tritch Roman
Director of Research Development & Initiatives, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Robotics & Automation | 113 Ag Engineering Building

Facilitator
Jeff Remington
STEM Outreach Liaison, Center for Science and the Schools, College of Education, Penn State

Monitoring & Decision Support | 118 Ag Sciences & Industries Building

Facilitator
Tara Mondock
Director of College Relations & Communications, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Break

3:30 - 4:00

Session Reports and Closing Remarks

4:00 | 102 AVBS
Paul Heinemann
Director of TALiS
Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State

Reception

5:00 | Penn State Calorimeter and Armsby Building

Symposium Logistics

All events will be held on the Penn State University Park campus. Parking information will be provided to registrants. 

Lodging Logistics

• The Nittany Lion Inn  0.7 miles 
• The Graduate  1.1 miles
• Hyatt Place State College  1.4 miles
• Scholar State College 1.2 miles